Politicians reluctant to take up flag debate

ATLANTA -- If there ever was a good time for Georgia lawmakers to resolve the emotional dispute over the presence of the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag, this is it.

South Carolina legislators lowered a Confederate flag from the Capitol dome in Columbia last year and erected a similar banner at a memorial on the grounds, while a study commission in Mississippi is recommending a referendum on replacing the battle emblem in that state's flag with a new design.

The 2001 Georgia General Assembly session that begins next Monday comes on the heels of legislative elections, so lawmakers won't face the voters again until November 2002. Popular Gov. Roy Barnes enters the third year of his four-year term, so he, too, won't be up for re-election anytime soon.

Yet, only one bill on the issue has been pre-filed, two fewer than were introduced during the 2000 session.

The new Republican leader in the House, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, is urging GOP lawmakers to let the Democrats take the lead. And Barnes, mindful of the political damage to former Gov. Zell Miller when he spearheaded a bid to change the flag, is in no hurry to pick up the fight.

''It's not going to happen,'' Sen. Joey Brush, R-Appling, predicted during a debate on the issue last month in Atlanta. ''I don't think the votes are there to change it.''

Still, opponents of the current flag are vowing a major bid to push the issue this year. Civil-rights groups are threatening a tourism boycott of Georgia if the flag is not changed during the upcoming session.

A boycott proved successful in galvanizing South Carolina's business community to support lowering the banner there. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau has estimated a boycott could cost Georgia $100 million.

Entering the session, the only player in the legislative arena is Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who has pre-filed a bill to replace the current flag with the flag that flew over Georgia before 1956.

The previous flag also has Confederate roots. It is based on the first national flag of the Confederacy.

What Brooks, D-Atlanta, and other opponents find so objectionable about the current flag, with its St. Andrew's cross battle emblem, is the circumstances in which it was adopted. They argue that Georgia lawmakers approved the change at the height of the civil-rights struggle to show their support for segregation and white supremacy.

''We're not objecting to Georgia having a Confederate past,'' Brooks said. ''The Confederacy is part of Georgia history. We object to the fact that the pre-1956 flag was desecrated by an all-male, all-white legislature as a protest. ... We're going after a symbol of division.''

But what the current flag's detractors see in the Confederate battle emblem, a 19th-century symbol that came to be embraced in the 20th century by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, flag supporters see as the definitive standard used to honor their ancestors who fought and died for Southern independence.

To the host of heritage-preservation groups gearing up to oppose the change, the pre-1956 flag -- with its white horizontal bar flanked by two red bars -- has no significance because it has been lost to history.

Trapp said the state SCV has added 400 to 500 new members since June, bringing total membership to nearly 4,000. He credits the surging interest to the controversy over the flag.

''A lot of people are interested in history and their family tree, but they're more involved in paying the mortgage or getting their kids to practice,'' he said. ''It takes something extra to motivate them.''

Politically, the issue is a hot potato, particularly for Democrats. Rural South Georgia, one of the strongest Democratic bastions in the state, also has a high concentration of white Georgia natives who strongly support the current flag.

At the same time, Democrats have increasingly come to rely on black voters, who overwhelmingly favor removing the Confederate battle flag emblem.

With such a strong potential that the issue could split the Democrats, party leaders who support the change are looking to the Republicans for help.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker says he'd like to see Democratic and Republican leaders put together a coalition to push for the change.

''Let's do it jointly and show the world Georgia can operate in a non-partisan fashion,'' said Walker, D-Augusta.

But leaders of the legislature's GOP minority are reluctant to bail out the Democrats on such a volatile issue at a time that is most politically advantageous to the majority party.

''When they don't need our help, they don't know what bipartisan is,'' said Westmoreland, R-Sharpsburg. ''When they need some heat taken off them, they want to be bipartisan. This is one of those situations.''

Westmoreland said the flag issue will be resolved when Barnes, the state's Democratic leader, wants it to be. But the governor doesn't see a need to rush, despite the threatened boycott.

''I don't think there's a deadline,'' Barnes said. ''I don't think it has to be done this session or the next session.''

Barnes says he's waiting for the legislature to take the lead because lawmakers have asked him to let them try to work it out among themselves.

But Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University, said the governor and other Democratic leaders are sure to come under increasing pressure to act.

''It's the kind of issue Barnes doesn't want to leave unresolved as he goes into a re-election campaign in 2002,'' Black said. ''If the governor gets African-Americans irritated at him for a lack of leadership, it would threaten the electoral base of the Georgia Democratic Party.''

As lawmakers prepare to begin the session, Barnes and Republican leaders agree on one thing: They can't allow the flag controversy to distract them from the other issues that demand attention, including education, water and transportation.

Senate Minority Leader Eric Johnson is optimistic that won't happen.

''I think it will dominate in the media because it's easier to write about the flag than clean water,'' said Johnson, R-Savannah. ''But as far as the legislature is concerned, we're capable of dealing with the flag and the other issues before us.''

Atlanta bureau reporter Dave Williams can be reached at mnews@mindspring.com or (404) 589-8424.